Whenever I see negative comments about C3 (mostly from users of it), it dumbfounds me.
The biggest fans are often the harshest critics. And there's just valid criticism to be had. I don't think most people make these comments from a place of negativity, even if it sounds like it.
However, I don't see an issue with cloning an official plugin for example, renaming it, adding it to your project and messing with its code that way, and from what you guys are saying, that's not possible?
Yes, that's not possible. It used to be possible in C2, but it seems that exactly that lead to some people playing the blame game and finding Scirra at fault when, in fact, they are at fault themselves. It's just human nature to attempt to find blame everywhere else except one self, anyone who played any amount of League of Legends or Overwatch can probably write a book about it. Teams losing? Must be (the game's bugged) and/or (lag) and/or (unbalanced character) and/or (anyone but me). It's never just "Oops, I screwed that up. I'm the problem."
Scirra also makes an easy target by nature since they are the company and they are getting paid. What are they supposed to do if a customer waddles in with their corrupted project due to a hacky plugin, blames them for it and expects it to be restored? Sure, as an individual you could easily say: "Lmao you didn't make backups? AND you messed around with a hacky, unsupported plugin? Unlucky buddy, learn from the experience, you messed that one up yourself." but as a company, in the end, you rely on people giving you money and ideally they are also happy doing so. Even if they give you a headache.